Which Republic Wireless phone should you choose? The Moto G vs the Moto X

There is no doubt that the best company for all smartphone users is Republic Wireless. Not only do they offer the industry’s best price for unlimited phone calls, texts, with a very generous limit of 5G of data, but they also offer the best coverage by using the wifi networks, the Sprint network, and the Verizon Network.

But the choice Republic Wireless customers must make is which phone should they choose: The top of the line Moto X for $300 or the slightly below the top of the line Moto G for $150? Is the better performance of the Moto X worth the extra $150? I have purchased both phones and in this article I compare them side by side to see which one is the right phone for you. So in the battle to see which phone is the king of the good deal on smart phones, here is the Moto G vs Moto X.

First impression

Right out of the box, the phones look pretty much the same. They are very similar in size, very similar in weight and are both equipped with both a front and rear camera. The android operating system the phones ran on had no noticeable differences, and I could find no apps one phone could run that the other could not. The only noticeable difference is the Moto G has an indicator light to let you know when you have a message while the Moto X has the notification flash periodically on the phones screen.

Advantage: Push

Coverage Area

My wife and I spent an evening testing out both phones. We tried making phone calls on our home wifi network, a restaurants wifi network, around town, and we even drove out to a rural area to see what the coverage was like outside of town. There was no noticeable difference in coverage areas and both phones had excellent coverage since they were both able to roam on the Verizon network at no additional cost. (There is a low limit of data that may be used on the Verizon network each month, but calls and texts are unlimited)

One difference in the phones is the Moto X has 4G capability while the Moto G does not. As we have the unlimited 3G plan for $25/ month this made no difference to us.

Advantage: Moto X if you want to pay $40 per month for unlimited 4G, otherwise push.

Call Quality

My wife and I both agreed that the call quality was very good on both phones. I could not notice any difference between the two phones, but my wife actually thought the cheaper Moto G had slightly better call quality.

Advantage: Moto G (but not by much)

Screen

The phones screens appear the same. They appear to be the same size, and neither is noticeably brighter or clearer. I would rate both screens as excellent.

Advantage: push

Performance

To compare the two phones my wife and I made a list of what we use our phones for the most. We then each repeated the same list of actions on both phones as quickly and efficiently as possible to see which phone could perform faster. Here is the list of what we did in our performance test.

Make a phone call and hang up as soon as the call connects after 1 ring.

Send a text that says “hi”

Send an email that says “hi”

Go to the Google Play store and download/install the game angry birds

Open the angry birds app and shoot one bird as quickly as possible without aiming

Open the internet browser and navigate to artofbeingcheap.com. Wait for the page to load

Take a selfie

Take a regular picture

My wife and I each did our test with both phones. The Moto X took an average of 3:35 to complete these 8 tasks, and the Moto G was just 9 seconds slower at an average time of 3:44 which is about 4% slower. Most of the time difference seemed to be in downloading and installing the angry birds app as both phones seemed snappy and responsive in opening, running, and closing all the apps.

Advantage: Moto X

Camera

The first picture of one of my wife’s Pinterest projects was taken with the Moto G, and the second picture was taken with the Moto X. I’ll let you decide for yourself, but my opinion is that the Moto X is a superior camera that shows the colors a little better and seems a little more detailed.

Next I tried the phones cameras outside by taking a picture of the iconic Manhattan skyline. Again, the first picture is with the Moto G and the second picture is with the Moto X. While the Moto X picture seems to have better detail and show the colors of the sky better, I actually find the colors of the trees to be more accurate with the Moto G this time.

Advantage: Moto X

Battery

My wife used the Moto X for several months, and has now used the Moto G for several days. In her opinion the battery lives of the 2 phones are about the same.

I wanted to do a slightly more scientific test so I conducted the following experiment. First I made sure both phones were charged to 100%, then I started playing TV episodes on the phones Netflix App. I played the show “Psych” which is a show that has episodes about 45 minutes in length. I played several episodes on each phone, then let the phones sit on standby mode through the night then continued playing episodes until the batteries completely ran out.

The Moto X was able to play 8 complete episodes plus 19 minutes of episode number 9 before the battery ran out. The Moto G didn’t perform quite as well as it played 7 complete episodes plus 2 minutes of the 8th. Even though the Moto X performed better, the Moto G still did quite well and is powerful enough to get the average cell phone user through the day without running out of juice.

Advantage: Moto X

Cost

The Moto X costs $300 and the Moto G is $150. At half the cost, the Moto G is a great bargain. With Republic Wireless’s plans as cheap as they are, the Moto X isn’t bad either. You can find information about Republic Wireless’s plans here.

Advantage: Moto G

The Bottom Line

Either phone is a great deal, and most people would be happy with either one. I’ll let you decide if the slightly better performance and better camera are worth $150 to you, but for my money I believe the Moto G is the better deal.

Note: I was not compensated by Republic Wireless for writing this article. I was not given a free phone or free service and paid for both phones with my own money.

For me, I would choose Moto G, aside from an affordable price, the camera quality is pretty good too! I’m waiting for your updated review of Moto G’s battery life because the first thing I look when I want to buy a cell phone is the battery life span.

Wow! I have been looking around for a review of the moto G. All of the first page results for “moto g on republic wireless were just the articles before anyone had tested it. You might even make some money if you put in an ad (that was a quality review). If I remember, I’ll use you referral link. Thanks again!

Prior to going over to Republic Wireless, I had been with Sprint for many years. I was reluctant to switch since I was getting a 25% discount through my work and anything out there could just not beat their price, but I was tired of their poor customer service and barely use any of the data that’s on my plan (got really annoying when I was forced to pay an additional 10 bucks) when I’m still using my old Blackberry Curve 8300. I never had any complaints with the service though. Rarely dropped calls and I had reception wherever I would expect it. With that said, at work I have zero reception.

However I do have wifi at work of course and with almost all my calls are being done at home or at work Republic Wireless works out great for me. When I’m outside a WIFI hotspot, the old sprint network or verizon kicks in and I have even better coverage than before. When I got Republic I started with their Defy XT. Despite that many say the phone is “old” technology, I actually like the smaller size and it’s very robust. That’s all about perspective of course. I mentioned my old bberry, so I felt the Defy XT is a huge upgrade for me. When I truck ran over my phone 2 weeks ago (the Defy could not handle that after all).

I decided to go with the Moto X instead of replacing the screen (yes the phone actually still worked). The Moto X blew my mind away. Technology wow! Yes I know I’m a bit of a Luddite when it comes to phones, but this one seems to do everything that over phones seems to do and is comparable to the latest Galaxy, iPhone etc. It’s bigger than my old Defy, but it’s very slim. Fits nicely in my pocket, fits nicely in my hand, easy to type on, and it’s not a clunky UI like the Defy. It of course still has all the benefits of Sprint/Verizon network + WIFI, and that WIFI to Network handover seems to work fine for me. I got the 3G plan for $25 and the speed is more than enough for my needs.
Bottom line is I have been really happy with Republic Wireless the past 12 months and I have not had any problems with a cheaper “inferior” service. I’m just savings lots of money.

You can too if you use my referral link. You will save an additional $20 when you sign up, and I’m not going to hide that I will also get $20 when you do. My link is: http://rwshar.es/v22e

This has been working great for me.
I have been a Republic Wireless customer starting with the Defy XT since 2012 and have had great service. I was paying $19.99/mo and the sprint MVNO works great for me in my area. I suggest those interested check sprint coverage in their area. I upgraded to MOTO X (got $100 Visa GC for trade-up program) and have been paying $22.50/mo (I get a 10% discount on service for being a beta member), not bad for a MOTO X phone for unlimited everything with no contract. Being able to switch between the $5, $10, $24, & $40 plan up to twice a month is a plus. I can switch to the $5 or $10 plan when I go on vacations to Mexico or Europe.

My wife is now ready to purchase the Moto G because of the great price $149/$179! She has the Sprint Pioneer plan which is a grandfathered phone plan with no contract and you pay as you go. With 300 text and regular calling (no data) she still has a varying monthly bill of $10 to $20 dollars and it’s not a smartphone. With the Moto G at the $10 plan she gets unlimited Call and Text, plus gets to use the smartphone functions at home and other Wifi locations.
Quick story: I went to Cancun, Mexico for vacation and stayed at a Condo with Wifi. So I was able to make calls to the USA easy and clearly with no need to turn “On” an App and sign in. Also, at the Cancun Airport where I had no Wifi and no Sprint coverage, only showed roaming, I was able to text my co-workers in the USA. Not sure how it worked but it did.
I suggest if you’re on the fence try it out and if not happy contact them before 30 days are up for your refund. If ordering please remember to use referral link: “http://rwshar.es/v22e” for a service credit of $20 toward your monthly service fees.

I have been using the Moto G on RW for a month now and have been happy with the service. I was with Virgin Mobile before, so I was already aware of Sprint’s coverage in my area. I didn’t get great coverage at work, but since I can connect to WiFi at work, now I get coverage all over the building. (which is great!) I waited until near the end of my 30 day test drive of the service before porting my number. (Which went smoothly) and now, I am a full RW customer. I was able to use at 20 credit during my test drive, so I want to help others do the same.
My referral code is http://rwshar.es/v22e (make sure to use it when you are ready to purchase or it could clear out of cookies before you checkout.) Give it a try for 30 days and see if it will work for you. It’s nice to save money every month!

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